Completion of the BROWN unsanded fiberglass fly rod blank

This is a 4pc 8' rated at 4/5wt fiberglass fly rod.
The action of this fly rod is slightly stiffer because of it thicker fiberglass construction. To finish it off, I have applied a coat of spar urethane for the finish coat.

** Please visit my classified section if you are interested to get one of this affordable fiberglass fly rod and other fly fishing gears**

Decals, fiberglass and bamboo

Quite alot of activities was "packed" for the weekends..

I tried to place a water transfer decal on the brown rod but it did not when as planned. I supposed to print out the decal, coat it a clear aerosol spray and then just transfer it on the rod. To make it unique, I wrapped a layer of metallic chrome thread under neath the decal. Sound pretty simple but didn't know it was the difficult.

From the top, it is the ok, but at the bottom, it look quite messy.

The next day, I still got time for another fiberglass.

The  wrapping was completed a day earlier and today it was epoxied.

Finally the rod is completed...

While the fiberglass rod was turning on the drying jig, I have got time to assemble the reel seat and cork grip on my bamboo fly rod blank.

Color Preservation for Twisted Threads

I took the hard way to learn that certain wrapping threads need to be coated with color preserver to maintain its' original colors, especially twisted threads like Bullard's Craftman Twist, Gudebrod's Classic Twist and Pearall's Gossamer Jasper.

If epoxy are applied directly onto these threads, the twisted affect will not be clearly seen and will turned dark. All your effort wrapping will goes down the drain.

After completed the wrappings on the brown blank, a coat of CP were applied onto it.

Almost done there... but I think it still missing...  black trimming!!

Back to BROWN

After installing the cork grip and the reel seat, it was time to do some match making.

Tried many colors and I thought of using Bullard's Black/Brown Craftman Twist on this brown blank but the color just would not stand out. At last, I have decided to go with the next best choice, Black/Gold Craftman Twist.

I was right, the Black/Gold Craftman Twist looked great on the brown blank.

Now, I'll have to complete the wrapping to the guides.

ONE done, ANOTHER one coming

Finally, I had the wrappings epoxied with Bullard's DII epoxy and the silk thread turn out to be better than I expected it. The color doesn't darken as much as other silk thread and the translucency is great. The foot of the guides are clearly visible.
 

Here's the photo of the completed rod.

Getting back to the translucent fly rod

Taking a break from bait casting rod building to complete one of the translucent fly rod that I have put aside for a couple of weeks.

It's also time to do a trial on the Bullard threads wrapping to my translucent fly rod blank. I am doing a spiral wrap over transparent wrapping on the hook keeper and S-108 Brass Gold on the stripper guide and other snake guide.

Bullard Silk thread 3/0 is thin and almost fussiness free. This is the first time I did not break any thread when wrapping the guide at tight tension. Compared to other brands of silk threads, I can easily break a few times during the process of guide wrapping. This silk thread is consider tough.

I do not plan to apply any color preserver on the silk thread. I would like to see how the brass gold silk thread turn out to be after epoxy..





** Please visit my classified section if you are interested to get one of this affordable fiberglass fly rod and other fly fishing gears**

Brown unsanded fiberglass fly rod blank

I received this blank for quite sometime now and yet I can't find the time to deal with it until last weekend. The blank look like this when I received them..

The fiberglass blanks are in translucent white but the shading is somehow different.
The different shading does not seems to change the integrity of the fiber glass blanks.


I clean the surface to the blank with clothes dab with Denatured Alcohol  and spray it with a couple layers of brown paint. The blanks turned out very nice with the unsanded ring on the blank and looks a bit like Steffen's

Jigging Rod

Ok..OK.. It took me less that 7 days to do the epoxy..  Fixing up the EVA grips and reel seat took me a couple of hours... And finally it's done.

Will pass the rod to its' owner by this weekend.

Jigging Rod - Acid Wrap

A friend asked me to help to build him a rod and I said "fine, bring it on"... thinking that it was just another fly rod or bait casting rod. Shouldn't be a problem...

Got the rod blank and all of the components from my friend last week and I got a big surprise there.... it was a jigging rod !!!!!!!!! I suppose building a jigging rod is similar to building any other fishing rod. No fancy stuff , I told my friend... just spiral guide wrapping and epoxy..

I had to check a few jigging rods of the racks of a tackle shop to see the guide spacing , handles and grips and other measurement. And finally, I did the wrapping..

 

It's another spiral wrap to a jigging rod. But some call that Acid Wrap and I have no idea why it was called that, maybe because of the rod company's name... Acid Rod.

Next, epoxy.... a slow process. To get 3 to 4 layers of epoxy to the wrappings will take about 1 week to finish.